Friday, February 20, 2015

1.playing with fire
2.fitting the mood
3.clever like shit
4.scene through
5.fading like a bad tan
6.thought whats that?
7.convenience is the conclusion
8.another fucking love song
9.closed in
10.beyond a measure
11.kill a commie(Gang Green)
12.dandy

JBA stood for John Brown's Army. I played guitar and sang in this band after Devoid Of Faith broke up. I really wanted to do something similar to DOF, but with an even more Japanese meets Sweden meets 80's NYHC influence to it.
I miss those days of having a scheduled band practice every week. Simple times back then. It really was a great time that in some weird way really was relaxing...or at least an escape from the other crap that was happening in life. No matter what was happening... I knew I'd be jamming a certain night.
We started off as a three piece with Matto playing bass. Recorded a couple 7"s with that line up, then we later switched him to second guitar, and added my roommate Eric to bass.
I did most the writing, Matto did most the solos and Robb Cole killed it on drums. We played lots of shows on the East coast, and then did a small West coast tour adding my old band mate Jim Macnaughton on bass. Unfortunately he never recorded with us, and shortly after that tour we broke up(although I really can't recall why we disbanded). I'm very proud of this recording. The songs are good, and the recording is stellar in my opinion. Will Killingsworth of Dead Air studios was the man responsible. Best engineer I've ever worked with.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Seized were a very heavy Canadian doom-sludge band who didn't have a guitarist, but instead had two bass players. It was seriously interesting to see live. Metalheads and punks alike seemed to love these dirtbags. Pretty sure they existed between 1995-98 out of Quebec and Sherbrooke. My old band DOF did a split 7" with them, it might be Seized's first release? My relationship started with these guys when I was introduced to them via my 'ol Canadian pal Simon Harvey. He did a label at the time called Dysgusher, and thought that my other band Monster X would be perfectly matched to do a split 7" with his friends from Human Greed(who he had done a record with). We ended up doing a split on Hater Of God, and spending lots of time with the Human Greed guys playing shows, traveling between countries and doing mini weekend tours. When Human Greed broke up, members went on to form Seized, so we were backing them 100%, and loving what they were doing. I miss Steph and Wag. I have a memory of staying over at Stephs house in Sherbrooke, and waking up to his pitt-bull(Bum) humping my head and then stealing my friend Kerry's panties. It took two people to get him off of me. RIP Bum. Pretty awesome/strange cover of Sabbaths hand of doom. Enjoy the tunes.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

One of my favorite Japanese hardcore bands ever. Right up there after Bastard and Gauze. When my Japanese friends were booking my old band the Oath to tour Japan for 10 days he asked me with whom we wanted to play. Warhead were at the top of my list, and Kenji made my wishes come true. I had a mostly terrible time in Japan for numerous reasons, but seeing these guys was a high point. This is prior to them ever playing outside of Japan.

When we got to the gig the members of warhead were already there, making jokes to one another, obviously about us. Japanese show tradition is that everyone sound checks, and sorta plays a few songs for the other bands in a form of respect (I think)... its sorta weird, but you get used to it after a while. The backline is provided by the club, so everyone plays out of the same amps, and drums. The bands just bring their guitars, and cymbals. We showed up late or something, and somehow missed Warheads sound check, so I think there was some early tension. The singer and drummer were really scary dudes. Older Japanese punks who had obviously been around forever and didn't fit in with Japanese social culture at all. I felt like they were the first true Japanese punks we had come across over there. The guitarist was obviously a junkie. The bassist looked nice enough though. At any rate no one had told me that these older Japanese bands didn't want to be photographed or video taped while gigging. Well that led to trouble right off the bat. I was right up front when WH started playing... the singer was going apeshit, then noticed me shooting video or photos and rushed over to me and started screaming in my face in Japanese, then using his finger on his neck motioning for me to cut it. It took another audience member to relay this to me, and let me know that it wasn't cool and to stop. I sorta did, though i think I tried to stealthly take some shots. I'll post some in this upload, although they are crappy due to the earliest of digital cameras.
By the end of the night we went out to eat and drink with Warhead... I ended up bonding with the bassist(talking about hard rock). Everyone was shit faced drunk and became friends. End of my Warhead story.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

The Verge were a great band from Albany NY that were around a little to early for me to see them live. They formed in 1980 or 81 and were known to open for bands like the Ramones, and even Flipper in Albany and Saratoga. This is my favorite Albany record from those early years. So much so that I actually owned three copies of this rarity at one time. Its not a hardcore record at all.. I always thought they reminded me of Joy Division meets Killing Joke. Its a KBD type ep. I've heard people refer to them as power pop, I don't see it. Supposedly there is an entire unreleased LP that was recorded, then axed because the band broke up. I would love to hear this...because at the end of their career they supposedly started playing faster and harder. I hope a band member unearths it someday, and it gets a proper release on vinyl.

Assuck is another one of those bands that saved many of us during the 90's when good hardcore seemed a real rarity. I only got to see these guys twice, both times in NYC at CBGBs. The band formed in 1987 in Florida where the death metal scene was growing strong. They really crossed over to the metal scene... as the frantic, well produced/played grindcore they were playing resinated with both punks and metalheads. Dudes were real pioneers. OLD went on to put out records on Earache.

Monday, February 16, 2015

1. an island of sanity in a sea of madness
2. a foot in the mouth
3. el toro
4. it made you sick
5. for what its worth

One can't think about Albany Hardcore and not think about Mark Telfian. Dude stuck around the scene forever. I met him in 1990 at a random show. He usually played guitar and wrote riffs(Limp Wrist, DOF, Conniption, Amongst Ourselves, By The Throat, Death Squad)... not in this band though, this is his first time fronting a band and singing. He had actually asked me to jam with him playing bass along with the the og guitarist and drummer. I did it twice, and Mark smartened up and booted me because I was poisoning the others by telling them it was a Born Against clone. The Og guitarist Jim Kopta passed away around a decade ago in a freak accident. Really sad. This band had way to many line up changes...over 25 in all its years. At any rate here is the demo. Enjoy it!

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Its been a while...
This is the stuff that saved me in the 1990's when hardcore punk seemed to be going south. Everyone seemed to be slowing down, or going post something or another... not these guys. The band was from the San Diego area and existed for three short years and played something like 15 shows. Its obvious that they were influenced by No Comment, and Infest. I bought the bands first 7" at Erl records in Albany NY and was blown away by how brutal the band was. I later bought the split with MITB from the same shop, and then got the split 5" from my friend Brian who played in Dropdead. If you haven't heard this, but are a fan of brutal music...47 songs, this is heaven.